A mend…

Hubby is not a regular swimmer, but we do try and take the Smalls for a splash around, and swimming shorts are really a necessity for this.

So when the elastic in hubby’s swimming shorts gave up the ghost,

I was a little concerned that he wouldn’t really be that keen on secondhand speedos, and decided to have a go at fixing them.

I thought that replacing the elastic would be pretty straightforwards, and would just be a case of snipping into the waistband, removing the perished elastic, and replacing it.

Not so.

The elastic is sewn into the waistband rendering it impossible to remove.

I took them along with me to the Big Mend several months ago, were it was pointed out to me that I could just sew new elastic around the INSIDE of the waistband-genius! Why I needed someone else to point this out to me, I am not sure…
Hubby did however then slightly complicate the issue by saying he still wanted to be able to use the drawstrings.

So I duly dug out some elastic, and measured it around hubby’s waist and got sewing.
I computed that I needed to use a zig zig stitch for elastic, but I thought it had to be a very tight zig zag, which I did, and hubby then tried them on…
They were no better-arrrgghhhh!
Cue lots of very tedious unpicking.

I then lost enthusiasm for the job/hubby doesn’t go swimming very often/other things got in the way and they got left. And left. And left.
But hubby has now started taking the boys quite a bit at the weekends if I am working, and was getting increasingly concerned he would be banned from the pool for indecent exposure if the drawstring gave out.
So I gave it another go.
And as with most things you put off fearing they are going to be a huge pain in the bum, this really wasn’t so bad, and took about 10 minutes. So if I had just got on and had another go months ago, I would have saved myself all that guilt and feeling bad every time I saw them silently berating me from next to the sewing machine.
I used wider elastic,

and a very shallow zig zag.

I also used the zipper foot to enable me to leave the drawstring unstitched.
The hardest thing about sewing with elastic is trying to pull/stretch it while sewing without pulling your actual sewing-any handy tips?

But they are done!

Not perfect by any means-more than a little bit of Wonk,

and they could have done with being a bit tighter again, but I refuse to unpick it, and they are at least functional for the last month of My Make Do and Mend Year!

I suspect that new swimming shorts might be quite high on hubby’s list of things he wants to get-still going to check out E-bay first though before hitting the shops 🙂